Aliens

[Chase Mueller]

I would definitely buy into them being content with where they are. Especially if one believes they aided early man. The world will die, we aren't helping that, why would they want to come? I think the idea of invasion is a bit, well, silly.

[Steve Peterson]

Modest in geologic timescales. Like a 1% headstart would be 130 million years. 0.1% headstart would be 13 million years. The odds that aliens would exist and not have already occupied the whole galaxy already are very slight.

I would say the probability is high given the number of galaxies, let alone the number of stars. Now as for life forms visiting earth, I don't doubt it has happened. I do suspect however that they have left us alone after determining that there was no intelligent life here.

Considering that advanced civilization (intelligent or not) has only been around for a few thousand years, the odds are extremely small that any other alien life would have seen it during a single visit. If they landed 100,000 years ago, a group of people would look only slightly more advanced than a pack of wolves or a herd of deer. They might catalog earth as interesting, and move on.

[Chase Mueller]

Considering that advanced civilization (intelligent or not) has only been around for a few thousand years, the odds are extremely small that any other alien life would have seen it during a single visit. If they landed 100,000 years ago, a group of people would look only slightly more advanced than a pack of wolves or a herd of deer. They might catalog earth as interesting, and move on.

That theory would explain revisitation. Documenting the evolution of mankind and Earth, or whatever they choose to call it
I'll be the first to admit I wholeheartedly believe we have been visited, but I wonder if it's all been from the same planet.

[Tom Stenzel]

I remember years ago watching Star Trek when our space program was going like mad. And I was all for it.

Then Star Trek Next Generation came out. After watching a couple episodes it seemed all they did was cart whining aliens around on diplomatic missions or some nonsense like that. After that I was ready to call my congresscritter to defund NASA. If these aliens want a ride they can do it on their own dime and call Intergalactic Grayhound or see if the Millennium Falcon is around.

At work we had all kinds of discussions about aliens, the Reptilians and other burning questions (like when making tinfoil hats is it shiny side in or out?). I doubt that we're alone but I also doubt any other race bothered to come to this rock. Why would they? We're just not that precious.

-Tom

[Chase Mueller]

I doubt that we're alone but I also doubt any other race bothered to come to this rock. Why would they? We're just not that precious.

-Tom

I disagree, respectfully. Why wouldn't they want to? They'd have to clearly be more advanced if they developed aircraft that could move through space, and most certainly time, then they did it for a purpose. Exploration maybe? Hard to say.

[Marshall Harrison]

Modest in geologic timescales. Like a 1% headstart would be 130 million years. 0.1% headstart would be 13 million years. The odds that aliens would exist and not have already occupied the whole galaxy already are very slight

The problem lies in that you have no way to support that. Your assumption is that aliens would want to occupy the whole galixy. but we have no way of knowing that.

Its also possible that hey have very long life spans but no faster than light modes of transportation. Could take them eons to expand.

and it's just as possible that they did inhabit most of the galaxy before their civilization became extinct. they could even have risen to the stars and fallen back multiple times.

Note that we are on a small spiral arm of our galaxy in an out of the way place. most col Nizam ion could have happened nearer to the core and hasn't progressed out our way yet.


We have no point of reference to do anything more that speculate.

[Mark Bolton]

I just watched the movie Arival. When I was younger, and even still a bit now, I wanted to believe in all the Area 51, Roswell, type theories. That technological advance for us was some how affected. Now at a mere 51 (which seems to feel like 151 at times) Im not so sure I buy into it but it makes for good books and films.

I have been an astronomy junkie for 30 years. Spent countless hours in an observatory I built imaging galaxies and nebula, planets, etc.. The thing that always seems to ring true to me is that most of us, even some of the smartest of us average individuals, has any real comprehension of time. 4.567 billion years for Earth. 13 billion years doesnt sound like "that much" more. There could be billions of other planets out there just like us, at similar levels of advancement. Maybe a couple thousand years older, couple thousand years younger, and the only thing we may ever get to experience of their life is its ultimate end when we see a supernova in the sky that occurred 6 billion years ago.

Sitting in that observatory it became a real brain bender to think that the light that is landing on my CCD's sensor left that objects center 29.35 MILLION light years ago... is just brain twisting.

Personally I think the notion of super advanced alien life knowing were here and just taking a back seat and watching speaks to a hope, believe, need, to think that someone else has their hands on the wheel. Ties into faith.

When you look at how long it has taken us to get something of our making to the outer reaches of our solar system, and that traveling at its current velocity, we may likely be extinct far before it ever even begins to approach any other "object"... sheesh. Mega brain twister.

[Chase Mueller]

Ok, first of all, please come help me build an observatory. That sounds effing awesome!
Also I have not seen arrival. Heard it was interesting though. Isn't it a prequel to something?

I don't buy all the area 51 conspiracies, but I definitely think they are hiding something. Look up the Unexplainable on Netflix. I think that's what it's called, really interesting documentary. Some of it's a bit cooky, but entertaining for sure.

[Doug Garson]

I recall reading Eric Von Daniken's book Chariot of the Gods back in the 70's which Jim may be referring to. I recall he started out with a statistical argument along the lines of there are x billion stars in our galaxy if 1% of them have planets that could support life and 1% of those did ........ Put me in the camp that believes there probably is life out there. But, if there is intelligent life out there and they have observed what is going on on earth why would they want to meet with us?

[Bob Bouis]

The problem lies in that you have no way to support that. Your assumption is that aliens would want to occupy the whole galixy. but we have no way of knowing that.

The assumption isn't that aliens would want to occupy the entire galaxy, but that some of them would eventually do it. We're talking about millions of years here. What do you think are the odds that humans won't colonize some other solar system within the next million years? Let's just say it takes 1 million years for a star system with people in it to spread to another one -- that's 2 (earth + x) in 1 million years, 4 in 2 million years, 8 in 3 million years, 16 in 4 million years... see where I'm going with this? In 10 million years that's 1000 star systems, in 30 million years it a billion, more than there are in the galaxy.

[Carlos Alvarez]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Ser...Twilight_Zone)

[Chase Mueller]

I recall reading Eric Von Daniken's book Chariot of the Gods back in the 70's which Jim may be referring to. I recall he started out with a statistical argument along the lines of there are x billion stars in our galaxy if 1% of them have planets that could support life and 1% of those did ........ Put me in the camp that believes there probably is life out there. But, if there is intelligent life out there and they have observed what is going on on earth why would they want to meet with us?

That's the key point I think, they don't want to meet with us. Maybe they tried before or observed the slippery slope of impending doom mankind has managed to dig itself into and just decided nah, not worth it. As a whole, with history backing this up I feel, we kinda stink.

[William Adams]

The problem is, while statistically / biologically there probably ought to be aliens based on what we know about the galaxy, the problem is, each such biosphere is stuck at the bottom of a gravity well and held captive by Newtonian physics and Einstein's dictum that one can't move as fast or faster than the speed of light.

Moreover, we happen to be fortunate to be on a planet which is:

- protected by a satellite which is unusually large in proportion to it
- small enough to still allow for one to escape the gravity well via chemical means

and have the option of getting off the planet --- many systems may not be able to consider that (say a large planet which doesn't have much in the way of radioactive elements).

Travel between the stars requires enormous energy inputs (or some manipulation of space/time which we don't have a handle on), and barring such developments, a time commitment equal to many human generations.

It's sobering to look a map of the Milky Way Galaxy and to see on it the _tiny_ sphere which the radio waves which we have sent out since developing radio have reached --- interestingly, with more sophisticated use of the RF spectrum, that signal strength is diminishing over time.

There was a decent novella written online recently which addressed the Fermi Paradox in those terms --- well worth looking up. (Or if you need a laugh, look up _They're Made Out of Meat_)

[Mark Bolton]

why would they want to meet with us?

Of course my perspective is skewed based on our past 50,000 years of evolution, but I guess in my mind, the question would be why "wouldnt" they? But again, that comes from a bias of our conquering ways. I mean it would be no different than the pilgrims sitting off shore and sending re-con teams in to merely "observe" the natives as opposed to claiming the land of others as their own and annihilating the native population.

No news to anyone but its all the makings of the yin and yang of potential alien contact. The predominant side of it is the fear of ourselves (War of the Worlds, Alien, Predator) so we think all other life must of course behave just as as we do? Why wouldnt they? Because after all, we are all knowing and have been given dominion over the Earth. So we storm into new areas that arent "ours" and make them "ours".

Then there is the other side hoping (and perhaps praying), that the other life forms are so smart, and so much more advanced, that they are helping us get to a more advanced place for some beneficial reason (Contact, Arrival, etc.).

[Chase Mueller]

I feel like that logic also assumes that the space and air around you are empty, but it's not. Nikola Tesla proved this. Drawing infinite energy from seemingly nothing, that opens up the door for way more possibilities we thought weren't possible. It's a shame it was silenced. We'd be much farther along than now.